Sweet, sweet Clementine

It's been a bit tough to find new TV girlfriends lately, with the writers strike creating a dearth of non-reality shows. I'm pretty choosy about my reality TV girlfriends. I'll develop a slight crush, then the woman will inevitably say or do something really annoying or mean, and poof! Crush gone. I think maybe I'm more forgiving with fictional characters. I'm more willing to hang around to see whether the character will be redeemed. (Or whether they'll be so evil that it;s fun, i.e., Wilhelmina Slater) Anyway, I've been out there looking, but not as many women on TV have been catching my eye lately. That is, until Clementine Ford, a.k.a. Cybill Shepherd's freaking daughter, showed up on The L Word. Ford is beautiful, and a total dead ringer for a young Cybill. I mean, check this out:

The screencap is a bit dark, but you get the point. A pair of knockouts, these two. You have to love a mother and daughter who, while playing mother-daughter characters, will do sex scenes on a lesbian TV show. Including one scene in which mom walks in on her little girl getting busy with another woman. I mean, God bless America. Ford plays a straight girl named Molly who is taken in by Shane's charm and goes "advanced placement gay" for her. Molly is smart, sarcastic and has that killer smirky smile thing going on, which is right in my wheelhouse. Shane appears to be simliarly smitten. She doesn't just want to sleep with Molly, she wants to be around her, talk to her, get to know her. I approve, Shane. You screwed up big-time by dumping Carmen (I will never get over it, ever, I swear). Don't let it happen again. I don't think I can handle losing another TV girlfriend because you have commitment issues.

Top 5 reasons the writers' strike needs to end

1. Tina Fey/30 Rock

"Four-thousand-dollar ham napkin." If you're a 30 Rock-aholic like me, you know what I'm talking about. Just one of the countless funny moments in your typical episode. I can't bear the thought of going months before seeing a new episode. Sigh.

2. Sarah Shahi

Thanks to Life, Sarah Shahi is cementing herself as my No. 2 all-time TV girlfriend (behind, of course, the patron saint of this blog -- Simone Lahbib). Life isn't TV cop show brilliance on the level of The Wire, but it's pretty damn good. It's captured my interest enough that I'd really like to see how this season plays out. Plus, Sarah Shahi is hotter than words. She's doing a nice job with her character. If Life doesn't last, I hope Shahi can parlay it into other interesting roles.

3. Yvonne Strahovski
OK, I am a Chuck fangirl. I love that goofy little show so much. It defies logic. Yvonne Strahovski is a total babe, her CIA cover is a crappy job at a place called Wienerlicious — what's not to love? Apparently there are several Chuck episodes still in the can, so I don't have to mourn its absence just yet. Yay!

4. Jenna Fischer

Ah, Pam. If Pam Beesly worked in my office, I'd be as love-struck as Jim. I love a funny girl. Pam is not nearly as bleak these days as she is in the above photo, since she and Jim finally got together. But that picture seemed appropriate, since the last time we saw a new episode of The Office was NOVEMBER 15TH. For heaven's sake, stop the madness. Pay the writers.

5. Sara Ramirez

I'm not all that into Grey's Anatomy this season (the writing has been seriously pissing me off), but Sara Ramirez is positively delicious. Thank goodness her character, Dr. Callie Torres, has become kick-ass again. For a while she was kind of a pathetic sad sack, which was no fun to watch at all. Although it's clear to me the show is not going to go this direction, in my mind, Dr. Torres and Dr. Hahn are having a secret, hot affair. What? Everyone else in that hospital sleeps together. Why not those two?

I'm just not that into her: Jacinda Barrett

So, last night I watched The Last Kiss, one of those Zach Braff joints. Normally I don't like to fall into the mindset of, "You have to be gay/black/Lutheran/a former band geek/whatever to really get this," but I swear you would have to be heterosexual to enjoy that movie. It failed generate any emotion in me except mild irritation. All the women were shrill and hysterical. Nice. To be fair, all the men were about as emotionally mature as your average 9-year-old. But it did get me thinking about one of its stars, Jacinda Barrett. She doesn't do much for me, despite being tall, beautiful, talented and Australian. Is it because I still see her as that model chick from The Real World: London, and thus I can't take her seriously? I don't know. She was perfectly sane when she was on the show, plus it was long before The Real World devolved into non-stop drunken shenanigans, so I don't think the grim spectre of crap reality TV looms over her. I suppose she just leaves me cold, for whatever reason. I just have to take a deep breath and tell myself that it's okay if I don't want every pretty girl to be my girlfriend.

In other news, Lauren Lee Smith also was in the movie, which gives me a perfectly good reason to post a photo of Dana and the Soup Chef. (As if I need a reason. Soup Chef!)

Soon to be back on my screen, thank god

As much as The L Word frustrates me -- and it does, quite often -- it does at times give me moments of great happiness. To wit: Dana and the soup chef, pretty much everything Leisha Hailey says and does, a good Bette rant, the awesomeness of Joyce Wischnia, and of course, Sarah Shahi as gold star lesbian Carmen. Ah, Carmen. With her beautiful smile and oh-my-god body, she made lesbians' hearts sing for two glorious seasons. (OK, the seasons weren't actually that glorious, but Shahi was, so whatever.) After Shane dumped Carmen at the altar (stupid move), Shahi's arc on the show was over, and she moved on to free TV, starring in an NBC sitcom that only lasted a few episodes.

She'll soon be back in prime time in another NBC show, this time a drama. In Life, which is on the fall schedule, Shahi plays the partner of a cop who is returning to the force after being framed for murder. To be frank, even if the show is crap, I would probably still watch it to see Shahi looking nine kinds of hot. Detective-wear suits her. But it sounds as if the show has promise. The framed cop is played by Damian Lewis, who was excellent in one of my favorite TV miniseries ever, Band of Brothers. I have a little bit of a boy crush on Lewis, I can admit. (If you were wondering why I didn't crop the dude out of the photo, there you have it.) Anyway, Lewis has already shown that he's a great actor, and so has another of the show's stars, Robin Weigert, who was so good in Deadwood as Calamity Jane it was ridiculous. Seriously, do yourself a favor. The woman was a marvel. And Shahi showed a lot of chops in The L Word, so if the material is as good as the cast, this could be a solid show. I have high hopes.

Incidentally, much is made of the fact that Sarah Shahi was briefly a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, but although I am a huge Cowboys fan, I find it much more interesting that she is a direct descendant of the shah who ruled Iran in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. (That's right, Carmen de la Pica Morales is not Hispanic.) Obviously her present-day family can't be too conservative if they're cool with her posing for Maxim and having simulated sex with women on television, but you can't help but wonder what the old shah might think about his great-great-great-granddaughter.